


Of rainclouds, gold, and the way you shine

by Lollipop_Panda



Series: When the day met the night [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Magical Realism, Metaphors, Supernatural Elements, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26633761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lollipop_Panda/pseuds/Lollipop_Panda
Summary: Rain has been falling heavy around the city for weeks now, and Semi is eager to see his beloved for the first time in several days.Or, the one where Semi finds out Konoha stood outside in the rain just to spend time with him (and why).
Relationships: Konoha Akinori/Semi Eita
Series: When the day met the night [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937587
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: SportsFest 2020





	Of rainclouds, gold, and the way you shine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novocaine_sea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/novocaine_sea/gifts).



> I return... I finished this ages ago but never got around to posting it here, so here we go! 
> 
> More vampire!Semi and nature!Konoha 
> 
> (I haven't agonized this much over a summary in a Long Time)

Semi shakes out his umbrella as he passes the threshold of the upscale apartment building, pleased he’s managed to stay dry even with the pouring rain outside, coming down in heavy sheets. 

There goes his nice idea for date night, he thinks to himself, a little forlorn, but at least Konoha had affirmed that he still wanted to see him; that Semi should come over and they could at least spend time together. 

Semi would rather it be _without_ his perpetual body guards (well, one of them at least, he finds Sarukui to be quite fun), but he’ll take what he can get, especially with Konoha being so busy at work as of late, making him too tired to rendez-vous during his rare free time, and their relationship is still too fresh for Semi to feel comfortable intruding in those moments. 

Climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, Semi ponders on Konoha’s very existence, still struggling to wrap his head around the fact that Nature is in fact still wandering the Earth among mortals. That Semi of all people is keeping company with said being. 

It’s a little hilarious, thinking about it. Him, a vampire, romantically associating with the epitome of life itself… 

On his way up, he passes the elderly couple that live on the ninth floor, apparently preferring the exercise in their old age, and greets them with a polite smile, grinning to himself a second later once he remembers them giving him tomatoes a few weeks back, claiming that their plants had never been happier than when they’d moved into the building. 

Semi had barely held in his laughter. Of course plants would thrive here. Semi has seen enough of the wildlife in the top floor apartment - both inside and out - to be able to guess that the entire building likely has a rather thriving plant-life. 

With a chuckle at the reminder, Semi keeps climbing, finally reaching the last floor and approaching the apartment door, grimacing when it swings open before he’s even in front of it. 

“Would you cease doing that?” he requests for what might be the fifteenth time this month. 

Komi grins at him unapologetically, “I’ll consider it when it stops irking you so much,” he chirps, stepping back to let Semi inside, “Besides, it’s not my fault you smell so strong that I can pinpoint you the second you turn the street corner.” 

Semi would consider finding this mildly disturbing, but he’s over two millennia old and has seen too much to feel that kind of emotion any more. 

Even if he weren’t old as dust, nymphs are apparently still around and one lives in the city of all things, along with Nature itself and one of the first werewolves to have walked the Earth. Komi being able to smell him from hundreds of meters away should come to no shock. 

As he’s removing his shoes, Sarukui appears, silent on his feet. 

“He’s right you know, besides, it’s not like you can’t tell when Haru’s around, either,” he appeases, holding his hand out for Semi’s umbrella. 

Sarukui has a point, but Semi knows for a fact that both the nymph and Konoha also know when he’s around, even if Semi can’t always tell where Sarukui and Konoha are. That, and both of them had stopped when he’d requested they stop opening the door before he got there (and to stop living in his thoughts). 

Komi had not.

Handing over his umbrella, Semi looks around the apartment, fully expecting Konoha to come and greet him as well. 

“He’s outside,” Sarukui says, ushering Komi back into the apartment with a look, “he said he’d be done soon.” 

Outside? Semi freezes as he takes his first step inside, looking to the closest window and confirming that yes, it’s still raining. 

Behind him, Komi clicks his tongue and returns to the lounge area. 

Sarukui chuckles and shakes his head before he turns around, moving to follow Komi, steps as eerily quiet as ever. 

Semi has to hold back the shiver that tries to go through him, always needing a few minutes to get used to the kind of chillingly hollow feeling Sarukui gives off whenever the man has his guard down, especially when it contrasts so starkly with his gentle and easy-going personality. 

Maybe one day he’ll understand why that is, but Semi knows not to ask, knows that for as many horrors as he’s seen, he will likely never understand the kind of hardships Konoha and Sarukui have gone through with their strong ties to earth. 

Easily shaking off his curiosity and finally stepping into the apartment proper, Semi crosses to the kitchen with the intent of making himself coffee just as the door to the patio opens, temporarily allowing the sound of pouring rain to inundate the quiet room, and someone steps inside. 

The sound of the rain is muffled once more as the door closes and the man turns around, and not for the first time, Semi is thankful he doesn’t need to breathe. 

Really, after six months of this, a vampire of his standing should be used to him by now, but somewhere in the recess of his mind, Semi knows there will be none of that, for Konoha’s very existence is one to be admired, one that rips all the air out of one’s lungs only to replace it, kindly, gently, with something so much better, fresh and earthy. 

Even now, drenched through to the bone, Konoha Akinori is a work of art, gold hair turned a shade darker and plastered to his cheeks and forehead, dripping onto already soaked skin, matching gold eyes capturing their surroundings and sparkling like a river reflecting the sun on the first day of spring. 

He sounds like a warm summer breeze, and he breathes air back into Semi’s lungs that he doesn’t need but craves all the same.

“Hey,” Konoha murmurs, smiling at him, lips quirked and alluring and Semi forgets himself again, away from him for too long, unaccustomed to him once more, he needs a moment to let his world realign, to find his bearings and remember how to exist in the presence of the man who’s heart sounds like life. 

“Hello,” he answers breathlessly, and the sweetest sound of all surrounds him as Konoha laughs, the origin of music, whispers of wind through flowering cherry trees. 

“Well, I’m pleased to know you’re still completely smitten with me, even when I look like I just tried to swim a marathon,” his voice is teasing and his smile blooms beautifully across petal-soft skin as the sunflower next to the window looks up from it’s weepy position to turn towards the noise. 

Semi understands where it’s coming from; he too thinks Konoha is akin to the sun. 

Like a cold shower though, Konoha’s words hit him and his current state fully processes in Semi’s addled mind, making him frown. 

“Why were you outside and, I quote, ‘trying to swim a marathon’?” Konoha laughs again, hiding behind his hand as he shuffles forward and grabs the towel on the counter, starting to dry his hair, smile disappearing and reappearing through the fluffy material. 

“Just because it’s raining doesn’t mean the sun isn’t shining,” he says - in Semi’s honest opinion - rather cryptically.

“I’m afraid you’re going to need to elaborate,” Semi tells him as he takes a step toward the man he gets to call his own, carefully moving his hands to lay them upon Konoha’s and cease his haphazard movements, taking over once Konoha lets his hands fall, drying golden strands in a more methodical fashion. 

“Hm, I guess I haven’t told you about it yet, huh?” again with the cryptic words, and Semi huffs a quiet breath of dissatisfaction. 

“You haven’t. Not that I know what it is you speak of,” Semi answers with another small frown, “we have discussed before, my love, that I do not know everything there is to know about you and your next of kin.” 

A snicker fills the space between them as the TV drones on from the lounge, playing an action movie that Semi purposely tunes out so he can focus on the creature in front of him.

“Why on Earth do you call Saru my next of kin?”

“You created his kind, did you not?” 

A roll of the eyes, a quirk of the lips that Semi wants to lean in and kiss.

“Just because I helped make the nymphs doesn’t mean they’re my heirs,” as Konoha answers, Semi pulls the towel away and drapes it gently over delicate-looking shoulders, watching Konoha glance away, a flash of pain in his gaze that has Semi’s fingers clenching around the soft material, “besides, if they were, that would make me a shitty parent, letting so many of my kids die before me…” 

Ah. 

With this, Semi knows he’s overstepped and landed himself in dangerous territory. Not because he may get hurt, but because if he doesn’t tread carefully he could hurt _Konoha_ , and that is most definitely a thousand times worse. 

“I’m sorry,” he’s quick to say, putting emotion behind the words as he leans in close and caresses a soft cheek, watching eyelashes the colour of the rising sun flutter from his touch, “I did not mean to bring unwanted memories.” 

A sigh that feels like an autumn breeze rustling dying leaves brushes Semi’s wrist and gold rises to meet hazel, trembling and fragile, like a budding flower fighting the frost after an unforgiving spring night. 

“I know,” Konoha breathes, “I know…” he repeats, closing his eyes and tilting his head just so, nuzzling into Semi’s palm. 

Semi takes a moment to admire him, to admire this man, Nature, and how beautiful he is, how strong and timeless, and how, here, in the kitchen of this upscale apartment, drenched to the bone, he trembles under Semi’s touch, open and vulnerable. 

With a shuddering breath he has no need for, Semi leans in and brushes their noses together, deathly-cold against summer-warm, the contrast stark but somehow fitting. Life and Death, day and night. 

“I will not say such things again, you have my sincerest apologies,” he whispers against lips made of roses. 

“Don’t let Haruki hear you say it like that, he’ll make fun of you,” comes Konoha’s answer, lips quirked impishly and eyes opening to show off sparkling pools of autumn gold, full of mirth and mischief, and Semi lets out a breath of relief, understanding that this is Konoha’s acceptance of his apology. 

“Too late!” a voice hollers from the other side of the apartment, and Semi takes a step away to glare in the direction as Konoha’s beautiful laugh resonates around him once more. 

Just this once, Semi will allow Komi to make fun of him and his ‘outdated’ manner of speech. 

Turning back to Konoha, Semi remembers their conversation before his blunder, and opens his mouth to offer to continue said conversation once his partner has, if not taken a warm shower, at the very least changed his clothes. 

Konoha is already in his head though, and that tickling whisper of a laugh goes through his mind, warm and welcome, if not a little strange. 

“I like that idea. Can I trust you and Haruki not to kill each other while I shower?” 

“I don’t know, he’s pretty upset that Semi upset you, Akinori,” this time it’s Sarukui’s voice, and this is why Semi was disappointed that they were not leaving the apartment tonight; there is no privacy to be had when in the vicinity of a werewolf who can smell and hear everything within a 500 meter radius, and a nymph who hears anything within triple that radius, as long as there is a plant to lend him its ears. 

Considering this apartment is full of plants, there is no escape from the eavesdropping. 

A warm chuckle echoes in his mind before retreating, and Semi can’t help but grimace, even if it’s a little fond around the edges: and then, of course, is the man who likes to read minds. 

Thankfully Konoha does not make it a habit of invading his thoughts, and only does so to tease or when, and he quotes, he ‘looks constipated’. To this day, Semi still isn’t sure what that means. 

“It means you’re thinking too hard,” Konoha whispers to him as he passes, lips pulled up and teasing, eyes sparkling still, and Semi much prefers him like this, “I’ll trust Yamato to keep you and Haruki in line.” 

And with that, he rounds the corner, uncaring of the rain water he’s tracking into the pristine apartment. 

*

Gingerly, Semi settles on the couch, as far from Komi as he can manage, glad to have Sarukui between him and the werewolf, vividly remembering the threats to his life over Konoha’s well-being several months ago. 

Just because he knows he can hold his own does not mean Semi would enjoy a fight. That and he is rather sure that Konoha would not appreciate his closest friend and his love interest getting into a fist fight over him. 

“You can stop acting like a skittish puppy,” Komi growls from the other end of the couch after a long moment, and Semi looks to him so fast his neck cracks, glaring at the comparison. Komi is, obviously, undeterred, “Aki didn’t kick you out and he’s cheered up again. That’s enough to tell me I don’t need to kill you just yet, mister ‘you have my sincere apology’.”

Semi bristles. 

“It’s ‘sincerest apologies’, the least you could do when making fun of me is get the expression right,” he huffs, glaring unseeingly at the television screen while the weather man drones on, predicting more rain. 

Komi snickers from where he sits and Semi can hear Sarukui joining in with a chuckle, but he dedicates himself to listening to the weather report instead of getting more riled up. 

“-and that’s all from me today.” 

“Thank you Mashima-san, it really seems like mother nature isn’t on our side this week doesn’t it, Yui-san?” 

Yui-san answers - something about baseball - but Semi stops listening because his senses have been invaded with summer evenings after a rainfall. 

“Hey now, don’t go blaming me for the rain, I have no control over that,” Konoha grumbles as he drops onto the couch unceremoniously, effectively draping himself over its three occupants, feet in Komi’s lap and head in Semi’s, who flounders for a moment, freezing and slowly relaxing as gold looks away from the television screen and up to him. 

A thought occurs to him then. Several, in fact. 

“Go ahead and ask,” Konoha says easily a moment later, looking away from Semi once more, pliant and relaxed in his lap, “and I’m not in your head, it’s just written all over your face,” he adds, taking one of Semi’s hands and tangling their fingers together. 

If Semi could blush, he’d likely be as red as a maiden experiencing her first courtship. 

As it is though, his heart had ceased beating aeons ago, so he can only clear his throat awkwardly and remember that this kind of casual touch is considered normal, as well as face the truth that he is as easy to read as a book to Konoha, even when he’s not reading his thoughts. 

Treading carefully, Semi asks his first question. 

“Do you really have no control over the rain?” 

Konoha snorts, “Of course not, you think I like sitting outside in the rain?” playful gold orbs return to lock with his and Semi is left fumbling for his thoughts for a moment. 

Shuffling his other question to the back of his mind to be asked later, he redirects his attention to Konoha’s answer. 

“Why were you sitting outside?” he asks next, bringing the conversation back to where he’d originally wanted it to be. 

This pulls an unexpected reaction out of Konoha, and Semi wishes he could have prepared himself for it in order to truly appreciate the way a pretty blush covers Konoha’s cheeks, like ripening fruit under the summer sun, eyes darting away for a moment in a rare show of timidity.

“Pho….is…” he murmurs, words too jumbled for Semi to make anything out of them.

Komi snickers. Konoha kicks him. 

Semi stares at him in confusion, blinking slow, unsure if he should ask him to repeat himself. 

It takes a moment, but Konoha’s blush dissipates and he looks back up at Semi. 

“Photosynthesis.” 

That is… definitely not what Semi had been expecting. 

“Excuse me?” he utters, confused and aware he’s likely missing some crucial information. 

From the other side of the couch, Komi gets kicked again, letting out a quiet, “Hey! Get out of my head!” and Semi can’t help but smirk a little, catching the way Konoha’s eyes dart to his lips before looking back up again and grinning impishly. 

The next thing Semi knows, Konoha is standing and offering him a hand. 

Hand that he takes before the thought has fully formed, pulled to his feet in a fluid motion. 

“Let’s go somewhere I can’t hear this one laughing at me,” Konoha suggests, already moving deeper into the apartment, guiding Semi into the corridor and through an open door that he closes behind them. 

Semi pauses in his admiration of the spacious room that could easily pass for a garden as the outside world falls quiet. Blinking in silent _shock wonder confusion_ as the hustle-bustle and mingled heartbeats and breathing that are a constant to his life disappear. 

Instead all he can hear is a single steady heartbeat, and Semi stumbles over his own feet in his rush to turn around and stare, wide-eyed, at the being from which the sound is coming. 

“Oh!” Konoha exclaims, and it’s all Semi can hear, magnified with the lack of usual background noise, “I should have warned you.” 

With a sheepish tilt of the head, Konoha unknowingly exposes his neck where a pulse flutters, stunning and unique, pumping gold through veins of pure crystal, the only sound Semi can hear in this room, a beating heart that sounds like more than just life now that he can listen without external noise interfering - it’s a thousand forests and a hundred more sunrises and rushing spring rivers and it’s _beautiful_ , and Semi stands, stock-still, lungs that don’t need air unmoving, heart still and body rigid. 

“I…” Semi whispers, feeling dizzy, “need a moment.” 

And Konoha, exquisite, marvellous, Konoha, nods and leans back against the door, bright gold eyes watching Semi carefully. 

Unable to close his eyes and look away from the creature before him, Semi does his best to centre himself, taking a long minute to let the melody flow over him, getting used to the enhanced harmony of Konoha’s existence in his ears, and finally, he nods.

“Okay.” 

“Okay,” Konoha repeats, quiet, testing, and Semi is very grateful for the low volume, for the sound of his voice, pure and unfiltered with the lack of background noise, makes him shiver, “sorry, I should have warned you I was going to do that.” 

With a shake of his head, Semi forces himself to look away and find somewhere to sit, not trusting himself to sit on the bed, not if he’s expected to keep any form of coherent thought while they talk. 

Catching sight of the armchairs by the window, Semi makes his way to them on shaky legs and sits down heavily. 

“You sure you’re okay?” Konoha queries as he joins him, sitting opposite Semi. And Semi, hopeless as he is in the face of Konoha, can clearly imagine him seated here on a day where the sun is out and shining, bathing him in light and making him glow, gold and beautiful. 

All Semi can do is nod, slow and full of wonder. 

“Yes… I just did not expect…It’s- you’re stunning,” he flounders for words, and hopes, for once, that Konoha decides to read his mind. 

With the way that lovely blush returns, Semi knows he has at least taken a peek, feels it in the quiet brush of a gentle forest against his thoughts. 

“Thanks…” Konoha whispers, falling silent thereafter, obviously giving Semi more time, letting him pick up the conversation whenever he’s ready. 

Truly, Semi does not know what he has done to deserve such perfection in his life, but there is not an atom in him that isn’t thankful. 

“Now you’re just being silly,” comes the amused whisper, a murmur of air into the quiet, only heard because it’s all that exists any more in Semi’s suddenly silent world. 

With an entertained quirk of his lips, Semi tilts his head and watches Konoha a moment longer, slowly getting accustomed to the beautiful sound in his ears. 

“So,” he starts, “photosynthesis?” 

Konoha’s reaction this time is much different, the blush only just makes it’s way to his cheeks and a smile grows, small and awkward. 

“Well, you know. It’s a plant thing…” he explains vaguely, and Semi does in fact recall, many many years ago, reading about the term; how plants assimilate nutriments and thri-

“What?” the rhetoric question escapes him the moment the realisation hits him, and Semi finds himself amazed and puzzled as he puts two and two together, “Really?” 

A quiet laugh that leaves Semi reeling and a self-conscious smile later, Konoha nods. 

“Yes, really. And this past month of rain is the reason I’ve been so tired lately.” 

The words bring concern to gnaw at Semi’s conscious as he leans towards Konoha now, gaze wide and worried. Before he gets to question him though, Konoha hides another laugh, muffles it with his hand so that Semi doesn’t lose his mind with the sound, and speaks. 

“Don’t panic, rain doesn’t stop anything. It’s just a little harder without direct sunlight, think of it as a human with vitamin D deficiency. It’s the same for me.” 

Semi doesn’t quite understand the vitamin D thing that mortals so oft talk about; he himself is much happier if he does not have to spend long periods of time out under the sun, skin still sensitive even when his eyes have grown accustomed to daylight. 

He is aware however, of the ill effects a lack of it can induce, has been witness to it in varying amounts over his time, and can’t help but let the worry linger in his thoughts and features. 

With a sigh that feels like wind lazily brushing through an open field, Konoha leans towards him, offering him a pretty smile full of reassurances. 

“Do I need to remind you that I’ve been around for a while, sir vampire?” he teases, “It’s not a little rain that’s going to harm me, stop worrying so much…” 

Of course, Konoha is right and Semi knows it, knows that as old as he himself is, Konoha is much older, likely even much stronger, but he had worried nonetheless, so used to his lonely existence that he had only been able to recall how fragile mortals are. 

The reminder helps though, added to the fact that Konoha had just soundproofed his room without so much as uttering a word or breaking a sweat, and Semi’s concern feels rather ludicrous now that he thinks about it. 

“So you were sunbathing?” he deduces, and earns himself an amused smile from Konoha who tilts his head and nods, eyes sparkling once more. 

“Put it that way, yes, I was sunbathing in the rain,” he agrees, “I can usually do it from inside, but I was really tired after work today, and I wanted to have enough energy to do more than just fall asleep on you tonight.” 

All Semi can do is stare. Stare at the man settled in the armchair across from him, where sunlight would usually fall, not even an inkling of that light here now, with the heavy rain-clouds above them, stare at the beautiful creature who had gone to stand outside in the rain and gotten soaked to the bone, simply because he had wanted to spend time in Semi’s company. 

If he’d needed the breath, it would have hitched. As it is, his body simply forgets the reflexive action, ingrained into it by years upon years of needing to fit in and hide in plain sight, suddenly rendered useless in the face of one Konoha Akinori. 

“Oh,” he whispers. 

Laughter, fluttering leaves and spring meadows, bright and welcoming and all-encompassing in the temporary silence of the world, greets Semi’s ears and makes him lick his lips as he watches the origin of a thousand forests and shadowed glades, home to fairies and nymphs and so many others, tilt his head back and laugh so beautifully that it’s a wonder Semi has gone through life for so long without understanding the true meaning of the word, embodied in this ethereal and almost impossible creature. 

“How about we stop those cheesy thoughts of yours, mister vampire? I don’t even need to read your mind to know you’re thinking I’m the origin of beauty or something like that,” the words wash over him and Semi would blush if he could. 

As it is though he only frowns, not the least part apologetic, opens his mouth and- Konoha moves from his chair into Semi’s in one fluid motion, effectively straddling his lap, looking down at him with eyes that burn gold and put sunrises to shame, and Semi’s jaw goes slack before he snaps it shut again, eyes wide. 

“Apparently the only way to stop you from thinking is to just render you speechless…” the words are a purr, the soft caress of petals against his skin, heavy with promise, “so let me silence your mind, _Ei-ta._ ”

And frankly, who is Semi, but a mere immortal, to refuse such an offer? 

*

Later, lying tangled together, when Konoha has breathed air into Semi’s undead lungs, as the wonderful taste of gold and salt mingles upon his tongue and runs through his metabolism in an attempt to imitate the life pulsing under his fingers, once Semi has finished raining praise against summer-warm skin, he rests against the soft cotton of a shirt and listens to the beautiful beat of a heart, enjoying the fingers running through his hair. 

“You know, for someone who likes to be fearsome and strong, you sure are a big softy,” Konoha whispers, lips pulled up in clear amusement, gold eyes speaking of tenderness. 

“I like to think that you bring out the best in me,” he answers, jostled as the chest underneath him rises and falls rapidly with the snort that leaves Konoha. 

“Ugh, and here I’d hoped the sappiness would start to wear off with time…” the words are full of mirth, and Semi smirks, moving so they’re eye-level, cold fingers brushing warm skin as they trail up an exposed arm all the way to a cheek. 

“I believe you do not mind it…” he hums, opening his mouth just so and letting a sharp canine brush against a kiss-swollen lip, “I think you rather enjoy the attention I give you, the space you occupy in my thoughts.” 

“You’ve caught me,” comes the amused answer, pretty grin illuminating Konoha’s enchanting features. 

“By the way,” Semi murmurs, a previous thought occurring to him as he slowly lets his hand move from Konoha’s cheek and trail down to a slender waist, daringly hoping to one day feel the skin underneath the shirt, “why do they call you mother nature, when you’re so clearly male?” 

Semi had been expecting many reactions, from the way Konoha had tensed up earlier all the way to explosive laughter. 

What he is not expecting however, is for Konoha to swap their positions, easily rolling Semi over onto his back and towering over him, a smirk stretching across his lips, tantalizing and as distracting as a fully bloomed bird of paradise, leaning close, bumping their noses together and tilting his head.

“That,” he breathes, lips brushing Semi’s in the most teasing of ways, “is for me to know, and you to find out…” 

Pulling back, straddling Semi’s lap and winking down at him, Konoha effectively shuts down any thought process Semi had, and then he’s gone, bell-like laughter echoing around the room like a fresh waterfall on a hot summer’s day.

As Konoha opens the door and sound rushes back to Semi’s senses, he thinks, perhaps a little hysterically, that he cannot wait to see what eternity has in store. 

Rolling off the bed in a dazed mess of limbs with the intent to give chase, Semi remembers all the poems and songs about how the moon fell in love with the sun, and thinks they truly weren’t that far off.

For even when it rains, the sun still shines, and his sky is full of gold.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, I am on [twitter](https://twitter.com/PocketoPanda)~


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